Now We’re Supposed to Believe the Queen and Meghan Markle Fought Over a Tiara?

Nearly every story about the Queen and Meghan Markle—not to mention about Meghan and all the other royal members of her family—is resoundingly positive. Everyone’s getting along with the latest addition to the squad! Charles and Meghan love to talk about art. Meghan and Katehang all the time. Meghan and Camilla are special buds. And so on.

But Meghan’s relationship with the Queen has, in particular, been portrayed as whatever the British-royal version of “thick as thieves” is. Just a few weeks in as the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan and the Queen made a day-trip outing to Chester (taking an overnight train together the night before!), and the two were seen whispering and laughing during their engagements. The Queen was also reported to have been very supportive of the duchess during the drama Meghan endured with her father and half sister earlier this year.

So all of this makes a new report from The Sun this week more than a little surprising. Basically, The Sun claims, the Queen was not thrilled about Meghan’s initial choice in tiaras for the royal wedding. The outlet says that Meghan had her “heart set” on a tiara involving emeralds for the wedding, but was told that she couldn’t wear it because the tiara was potentially from Russia. The source told The Sun that the Queen intervened, telling Prince Harry, “She gets what tiara she’s given by me.” Terrifying! (Meghan ultimately wore a diamond and platinum tiara from the Queen’s private collection.)

Per The Sun, the Queen reportedly took issue with other decisions Meghan made before the wedding, as well: “The Queen also questioned why Meghan needed a veil for the wedding, given it was to be her second marriage,” the source said, continuing, “Meghan can be difficult.”

While this report is not corroborated in Robert Jobson’s new Prince Charles biography, Charles at Seventy: Thoughts, Hopes and Dreams, there is mention of Harry’s stress in advance of the wedding. According to the Daily Mail, Jobson writes that Harry told staff, at one point, “What Meghan wants, Meghan gets” and eventually the Queen asked to see Harry privately, after hearing about his “tiresome behavior,” at which point she “put him firmly in his place.”

Meghan, of course, has not given any indication that things are anything other than peachy between her and the Queen. She has described picking out the tiara to wear for her wedding as an “incredibly surreal day.”

What to make of all of this? It is, of course, theoretically possible that the Queen is a huge fan of Meghan’s and also nixed a tiara choice. On the other hand, given how close the two have appeared, it also seems quite possible this story is the work of an anonymous tipster trying to to cause some trouble, or some other crossed wire. No doubt one thing is clear: the next time the Queen and Meghan appear together in public, you can count on the British tabloids monitoring the body language between the two with detail beyond excessive.